This horror show of a year challenged us on every front. Finding ways to tend to our families and ourselves in the midst of an overwhelming global health and economic crisis wasn’t always successful in 2020. From loss of income to loss of connection and loss of life, the year’s consequences were not inevitable or deserved. Still, hope emerged from this city’s people.
At MLK50, one of our core missions, bearing witness, was challenged by this pandemic. We had to learn about working in the community safely to minimize risk for all. We took this moment to think about how photography can be used as a tool for liberation, rather than one of surveillance. These lessons are reflected in this depiction of 2020.
By telling the story of this year through images of the people at the center, we think there is some hope for a better Memphis in 2021.
The Marchers
Willie Perry stands for a portrait while taking a break from roller skating alongside the MLK Day annual march on January 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
Scenes from the MLK Day march on January 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Scenes from the MLK Day march on January 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Scenes from the MLK Day march on January 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Scenes from the MLK Day march on January 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50.
It seems like the morning of every MLK Day march is met with frost on the grass at the corner of North Main and A.W. Willis, where folks gather before setting off on their annual route. The cold creeps under jackets but doesn’t deter the groups of folks who have made the walk from the North Main Memphis Area Transit Authority terminal to the National Civil Rights Museum. Though 2021 might be the first year in more than three decades that the march may not happen, the commitment that has carried this ritual this far is sure not to fade.
The Lovers
Our series during Black History Month highlighted the stories of four couples. Our sessions with Rev. Floridia Jackson and her wife Treace, as well as Emma and Thomas Trass, served as tales of sweetness and perseverance.
The Workers
The disruption that the pandemic brought to everyday life was felt most sharply in Memphis by workers who had barely figured out how to survive in regular times. Many of them shared their stories in their own words with us during our first-person essay series. Read some of their stories here: Frank Johnson; Lorin Vincent Haines; Eileen Castine; Epiphany Jones.
The Mourners
Judy sits on the curb in front of the National Civil Rights Museum on April 4, 2020 as 6:01PM approaches. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Sheila Nickelson and Rosalinda Candiotti embrace each other outside of the National Civil Rights Museum on April 4, 2020 at 6:01PM. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50.
April 4th outside of the National Civil Rights Museum is a somber affair. Every year, a large crowd gathers outside the balcony of the former Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, to pay respects with an intentional moment of silence. But 2020 brought a different kind of quiet to the site. Only a few people were there (along with a masked security guard), and there was no formal program presented by the museum.
The Caregiver
Sepia Coleman is a home health aide whose activism with the Fight For $15 movement put her at the forefront of conversations about living wage reform. When the pandemic started, she wrote about the dangers she faced as she found herself on the frontlines at work. Her life took a frightening turn when she contracted the virus, resulting in high medical bills and little recourse or support. Through it all, Coleman’s courage in sharing her experiences reminded us how much is revealed about what needs to change when stories center the voices of workers.
The Mother
“Pregnancy is stressful,” Maya McKenzie wrote in a first-person essay for MLK50 a few weeks before delivering her daughter, Paz, this past July. “Being pregnant during a pandemic is even more stressful. But being Black and pregnant during a pandemic and an uprising is devastating.” Thankfully, McKenzie and her baby made it through their birthing experience safely.
The Parents
Whitney Sykes (left) with her daughter, Bella. Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50 
Tyler Brown and Starla Emery with Finn at Memphis Made Brewery. Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50 
Lakisha Windle (right) stands for a portrait with her kids, Kyla (center) and Nathan (left.) Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50 
Edith Ornelas and her son Isar at the Mariposas Collective supply warehouse. Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50 
Tonya Reece (center left) and her partner Tui Mataele (right, sitting) with their children at their home. Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50
Photographer Brandon Dill met and interviewed working parents in Shelby County as the 2020-2021 school year approached and the school district deliberated what all-virtual education would look like. What he found were feelings of collective anxiety in the space between wanting the best for children and wanting to protect the family against a pandemic. Much of the testimony was rooted in love and perseverance. Read insights from the families here: Part I; Part II
The Neighbors
Isaac Tate; Photographed in Orange Mound. “If I could change something about Orange Mound, it would be the feeling of community. I used to took at the Mound as the last real community where everyone worked together. I miss that. 
LaKeisha Jones; Photographed in Orange Mound. “If I could change anything about today, it would be a cure for this virus. I need a job to pay my rent. Today I feel hopeful.” 
Candace Tate; Photographed in Orange Mound. “If I could change something about my old neighborhood, Orange Mound, it would be to restore its communal pride and dignity. Restore its beauty, reduce the blight and economic depression.” 
Carly Lyons and her family; Photographed at Soulsville. “Our sons future is at stake in this moment and [we] remain hopeful.”
Dill also shared a survey of thoughts, worries, hopes and desires from folks in Orange Mound and Soulsville as part of his photo booth project. See those images and words here.
The One-Man Voter Registration Campaign
Reginald Upshaw set up his voter registration booth on an empty corner lot he owns in the Klondike-Smokey City area. He planned to set up on the Fourth of July, but the smoke from fireworks during this year’s celebrations made him wait until the next day. While he only logged single digit registration numbers, Upshaw considered it a victory. “I was ecstatic,” he said of the first person he helped, “I took the guy’s picture. We took a selfie together. He told me, ‘I had just given up.'” He said the work is very important to him because it needs to be done, “It’s a struggle. I wouldn’t be in it if it wasn’t.”
The Fighters
Folks hold space on Beale Street near BB King Boulevard during a protest in response to the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
Mary Stewart walks down Winchester Road on the fifth anniversary of her son Darrius’s death in July 2020. Darrius Stewart was killed by Memphis police officer Connor Schilling in 2015 after the car he was a passenger in was pulled over during a traffic stop. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
People gathered on the steps of Clayborn Temple on May 29, 2020 ahead of a protest against police brutality. Photo by Johnathan Martin for MLK50. 
A protest against racism in education took place in front of the Shelby County School District building on June 13, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Folks with Our Now, Our Future: A Movement for Black children march down Poplar Avenue on June 20, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50. 
Memphis police officers detained about 15 people Wednesday morning outside of City Hall, 12 of them were part of an ongoing occupation protest that had been going on for over two weeks. City of Memphis officials announced that they would evacuate the protestors on Tuesday evening to begin a construction project on the City Hall exterior. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
A socially distant protest took place along Union Avenue in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery on May 27, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
Cassandra Dixon, 54, stands with a sign near the corners of Norris and Hernando roads on Tuesday after a press conference. Dixon was among the first residents of the neighborhood to organize the community against plans to build a gas station. Photo by Carrington Tatum for MLK50 
A sign opposing the Byhalia Connection Pipeline is held up during a rally organized by Memphis Community Against the Pipeline at T.O. Fuller State Park. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 
The Lululemon location on Central Avenue boarded up its windows ahead of a protest against police brutality and racism that marched through Cooper-Young on June 5, 2020. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50
As advice about social distancing and its role in reducing the spread of the pandemic was setting in, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police happened on May 25, 2020, and people poured into the streets. Floyd’s death, caught on video, burst a dam of grief, anger and pain that flooded the streets of cities and towns across the world. People organized as safely as they could to speak out and claim a fight against anti-Blackness, misogyny and their systemic manifestations.
In Memphis, activists spent much of the summer speaking the names of Breonna Taylor, Darrius Stewart, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Oluwatoyin Salau and other lives cut short as a result of racism’s reach into our systems. The fights continue in the organizing of Memphians against threats that disproportionately affect Blackpeople, such as the Byhalia Connection pipeline, which threatens the mostly-Black neighborhoods of southwest Memphis, and a gas station that was proposed in the Prospect Park neighborhood.
Andrea Morales is the visuals director for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at andrea.morales@mlk50.com
This story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by these generous donors.